"That's not going to happen," said Neal Belitsky, chief executive officer of American Roads, which owns the span. "We have a business to run and we bought the business with an understanding."

Belitsky, speaking to about 350 Orange Beach residents on Tuesday, did, however, leave the door open to returning residents' toll from $1.50 to the $1 they paid before March 2007. Standard vehicles driven by nonresidents pay $3 to use the bridge.

"I will make myself available for the mayor or the mayor's designee to sit down and have that as an honest discussion," he said.

American Roads took over the span, and three other Alabama toll roads, in early 2007. The company is owned by Alinda Capital Partners, a private equity firm that invests in infrastructure on behalf of clients like state pension funds and university endowments.

The new owner's first move was to increase tolls by 50 percent, angering residents who had negotiated a discounted $1 toll as part of the city's multimillion partnership with the bridge's builders three years earlier.